Before Tebaldi was born her cellist father and her mother had separated. Her mother, a nurse, subsequently settled with her own family in the small town of Langhirano, outside Parma. At the age of three Tebaldi contracted poliomyelitis, which was cured after five years of intensive nursing, bringing mother and child close. She sang in the Langhirano church choir and when she was thirteen her mother arranged for her to have piano lessons in Parma with Giuseppina Passani, who later suggested that she study singing. Tebaldi felt that this enabled her to express herself fully, studying with Italo Brancucci at the Parma Conservatory, which she entered when she was seventeen. Later she studied voice there with Ettore Campogalliani and was subsequently a pupil ...